- President Donald Trump gave a new sober tone Tuesday at his first coronavirus press conference in months.
- At the press conference, he said the outbreak of coronavirus in the United States “would get worse before it got better.”
- The change in tone was likely triggered by falling polls and growing concern by Republican governors and members of Congress about the lack of White House leadership.
- And critics were quick to question the sincerity of the president’s new seriousness.
- He continued to ignore public health advice and, despite the negative data, praised the efforts of the United States to contain the virus.
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President Donald Trump’s first briefing at the White House on the coronavirus crisis in months was marked by a serious change in tone.
After weeks of downplaying the importance of rising infection rates, Trump said Tuesday that the US outbreak “will get worse before it gets better.”
“Something I don’t like to say about things, but that’s the way it is,” he said.
And after consistently refusing to wear a mask himself and offering equivocal support for the public’s use of the face covering at best, Trump echoed top public health officials Tuesday about the urgency of the measure.
“We are asking everyone that when you can’t socially distance yourself, wear a mask, get a mask,” he said.
“Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact, they will have an effect, and we need everything we can get.”
On Monday, he also tweeted a photo of himself wearing a mask, calling it “patriotic.”
—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 20, 2020
Trump downplays growing infections to focus on economy
For weeks, a group of White House advisers, including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been urging the president to focus not on the pandemic but on talking about the economy, according to Politico.
They believe that approach will give him a better chance for reelection in November, Politico said.
But the virus is not declining, as Trump predicted, and continues to sweep across the U.S. after several states, at Trump’s urging, lifted the blockade measures, while infection rates remained high.
And that appears to be having a devastating impact on his reelection prospects.
A host of national and state polls show Trump follows his alleged Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, sometimes by double-digit margins.
Aides to the president reportedly believe Trump’s handling of the virus is among the factors underlying the depression. Biden’s message about the coronavirus has contrasted sharply with Trump’s, as the former vice president early adopted the use of masks in public and criticized Trump for his inability to contain the virus.
Growing concern among Republicans about the lack of leadership in the White House may also be another factor behind Trump’s change of tone on Tuesday.
Most of the recent waves of infections have occurred in Republican-trending states in the south and west. As intensive care wards in some cities are reaching capacity, concern is said to increase among top Republicans.
According to The New York Times, a group of Republican governors have been holding secret conferences for weeks, arguing about the president and exchanging advice on how to contain the virus without the leadership of the federal government.
Even Republican lawmakers loyal to the president, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, broke up with him by wearing masks and other measures designed to control the disease.
Critics question the sincerity of Trump’s change of heart
But has the president had a genuine change of heart, or was Tuesday’s change of tone born of a mere political calculation?
Critics quickly pointed to the fact that Trump was photographed Monday night, hours after tweeting that wearing masks was “patriotic,” without a mask at a fundraising event in Washington, DC, where there was also no social detachment. .
—Jim Acosta (@Acosta) July 21, 2020
On Twitter on Tuesday, Trump described the United States as successfully battling the virus despite figures showing the highest number of cases and deaths in the world.
The next few weeks will likely determine whether Trump continues to take the virus seriously or return to partisan attacks and misinformation that helped end daily coronavirus briefings in April.
